Lawyer turned podcaster, Clarissa Rayward, has really shaken up industry thinking and helped many of her fellow lawyers live a healthier, happier and more balanced life with her podcast, Happy Lawyer Happy Life.

Clarissa’s story just goes to prove that there are unconventional business opportunities even in the most staid and traditional of industries, and podcasting can be a great way of discovering and harnessing those opportunities.

In her inspirational presentation at the We Are Podcast 2017 event, Clarissa outlined her podcasting journey and how she turned her side hustle into a $10,000 a month business.

Here are Clarissa’s top four learnings from what has and hasn’t worked for her in her podcasting journey and some tools and techniques she recommends for success.

Lesson One – The idea is Really Important

As Clarissa says, “not every podcast idea should become a podcast.” First up you need to spend some quality time thinking about why you want to podcast. What’s your purpose? Who are you trying to reach? What message are you trying to get out there?

This is big question and a critical one, especially if you plan to spend some time and effort developing a podcast. Take some time to really crystalise your idea. “However, don’t overthink ideas. I’m a fan of just getting in and doing it,” Clarissa says.

A Tool to Try – Speed Thinking

There’s an old saying: a task expands to fill the time given it. Give somebody threes minutes to do something and they’ll do it in three minutes. Give somebody three days and guess what? Give yourself a fixed and limited time to generate ideas. Sometimes just trying something and testing it is the best way to get feedback.

Lesson Two – Have a Plan

“Have a plan, but also be ready to throw it out the window,” Clarissa says. “I’m a big advocate of having a macro plan, having a sense of what you’re trying to achieve and having a sense of where you’re trying to go. But I’m also a fan of paying attention to the world around you, living in a very present state and listening to the immediate feedback,” she says.

Spend the first six months just listening to what your ideal listener is saying. What questions are they asking? What problems are you solving? Pay attention to the conversations you’re having everyday and you’ll get wonderful feedback and ideas. Then you can turn those ideas into products.

A tool to try – Build Fast, Fail Fast

Clarissa provides the example of her membership community – The Happiness Club. It came about after a conversation with a participant in one of her earlier courses who said the best thing about it was the community.

To test the idea, rather than spending thousands of dollars, Clarissa simply began by setting up a free MailChimp account and a Facebook group page to get it off the ground. Test and learn before building out the bigger product.

Lesson Three – How do you Find the Time?

Clarissa’s answer to this is simple. We all have the same number of hours in a day; it’s how you use them that’s different. When you want to do something, you will find the time.

“I’m an advocate of the ‘create your system approach’, whatever system works for you,” she says. That might be batching all your content to produce in a day, or it might be half an hour at 5am of a morning. “Create some sort of structure, some sort of process, some sort of system that fits with your life, and that’s how you’ll find the time,” is Clarissa’s recommendation.

A Tool to try – Macro structure, Micro Flexibility

To live an entrepreneurial life, you have to roll with the punches. Things will always come up that you can’t predict, and things will always change. Have your macro structure in place to guide you, but be ready to adapt from day-to-day at a micro level.

Lesson Four – Be Ready for the Challenges

“There is a reason they call the entrepreneurial life ‘the unbeaten track’. You are doing things differently, you are trying something that no-one else has, and that’s not easy,” Clarissa says. “There isn’t a walked path that you can follow and go, well, that’s what I do.”

Self-belief is your savior. But this will often be challenged. Watch the negativity bias, the tendency to see the negative rather than the positive.

A tool to try – Find your tribe

Form a group of core people around you, people whose opinions your really trust and value. Search out people with similar goals and aspirations that feed each other’s positivity.

And one more tool to try – just have a go! What’s the worst that might happen?

Ronsley is the founder & chief day dreamer at AMPLIFY. He is an author, speaker & serial entrepreneur.

He has a Masters’ degree in Software Engineering and an MBA in Psychology and Leadership. He is known as the creator of We Are Podcast – the first Podcasting Conference in the Southern Hemisphere, and the host of The Bond Appetit Podcast and Should I Start a Podcast. He has an audience of over 3 million in 133 countries.